From conspicuous consumption to conspicuous frugality
Ever since Al Gore sounded the alarm about global warming, everyone on earth is aware that mankind (an oxymoron if ever I heard one) must preserve itself and the environment if it is to survive. We mus...
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Consumer protection in Oaxaca, Mexico: A case study
PROFECO has its limitations. However, it does provide an important and valuable alternate means of dispute resolution.
read moreWinemaking in the Mexican sierra
When he took the first sip of his nectar, Guy thought he could hear the angels sing.
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Hot wheels
According to the international brotherhood of insurance salesmen, a car or truck is stolen every 12 minutes in Mexico. That priceless bit of information is the marketing pitch for more and better cover...
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Memories of Morelia: Tall buildings, Janitzio and a hamburger
I was nine years old the first time I visited Morelia, in 1973. I was living with my family in Xicotepec, a small town in the north of the State of Puebla. We spent our summer vacation that year with m...
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Zoning Laws And Peacocks
Question: Can you hear a peacock's screech over the roar of city buses?
Answer: Yes.
Question: What's a peacock doing in city traffic?
Answer: No zoning laws keep...
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Friends You Make On The Corner
"Ya gotta start working early," five-month old Pita would tell you if she could talk. "Take my brother, Chavita, he started working when he was only one month old." It's true. Two years ago Chavita - n...
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Roustabouts For Hire
It was like following three battleships. The shoppers rolled away like bow waves before the three
"cargadores" who churned toward them with two hundred pounds of produce on each of their hand ca...
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Gringos are changing Mexico
Southbound gringos of retirement age have the uncanny ability to immediately identify changes that should be made in Mexican lifestyle. Maybe you've heard the laundry list.
"Punctuality is in desperat...
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La Llorona: does she seek your children?
"Don't go near the water," mothers caution their children, "You might drown." Good advice, but it has another meaning in Mexico and Texas. Moms living near the Rio Grande are protecting their children ...
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Sending a Child to School in Mexico
Mexican schools will welcome you as a foreigner - to a certain extent.
Your kids have had a blast in Mexico. You have as well. They're sold, you're sold. Everyone is caught up in hyper-speed tow...
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Bugs of San Blas
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow waxed poetic about the bronze bells of San Blas without seeing or hearing them. These less eloquent westwords are about the bugs of San Blas, a very up-close and much too-per...
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Large families North and South of the border
Families in Mexico tend to be numerous. I know about big families. I come from one.
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The real Don Adams is still alive
The real Don Adams came to Mexico to die. It seemed like a good place for such a significant event. Convenient. He could drive down from Texas. Good weather if anybody wanted to walk in a funeral march...
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The Widow Tamez, accidental expatriate
Back in the old days of Pirate Island, an island only by definition, located along the Rio Grande near Ysleta and San Elizario in El Paso County, Mexico and the U.S. had a boundary by treaty mdash; the...
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Drinking Water Filter Systems For Home And Travel
"Protect Your Health at All Costs!"
If you want to "Live Your Mexican Dream", you've got to be healthy.
Drinking w...
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Freemasonry Is Alive And Well At Lakeside! Axixic Lodge No. 31
Axixic Lodge #31 is located in Ajijic, Jalisco, Mexico, and was founded in 1987. Since its founding, the Lodge has been an activity member of the community, and growing! From eight founding members, the Lodge has grown to over 60 Brothers. From its inception, the Lodge has met in various locations, private homes, art galleries, restaurants, and currently in a hotel conference room that the Lodge rents.
read moreBorder promotions, or the Mexico two-step
"You can become anything or anyone you like the day you cross the border," they tell us when we arrive in Mexico. They're right.
In Ajijic, a man wearing a U.S. Navy cap and respectfully referred to a...
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Wildfires and old men: the legacy of US immigrants in Talpa
What no one was aware of was that, subtly, Guy and Bill were changing the ideals of the future leaders of a Mexico mountain village. Try Guy's Guy's Gringo Chile Relleno Casserole recipe.
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On being a gringo in Mexico: From Colonel to Cuernavaca
Is it easy for a GEM (Gringo en Mexico)? I guess that depends on the GEM!
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A Mexico love story
Marta Palomares and her husband, Michael Dickson
A genuine Mexico love story lives in a big, beautiful home behind a high wall in Tzurumutaro, a not-much-to-it community adjoining Patzcuaro in the r...
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Kooks in the Kitchen and Great Social Skills: A Mother's Trade-off in Mexico
Sometimes circumstances in Mexico make it harder to care for a child. But overall, Mexico has given us many blessings as parents.
read moreWhere in the World is Amy Gray Kirkcaldy? - Adjusting to life in Mexico
To live here, you have to learn to love it unconditionally. You have to stop trying to accept Mexico and let it accept you instead, or else you'll never appreciate its beauty.
Back in the summer of 20...
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The Lake Chapala real estate market
Between 2003 and 2006 , the average sale price of Mexico real estate in the Lake Chapala area increased by approximately 69%.
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Expats to Get a Vote and a Voice
Voters can cast a primary ballot in person on February 5. Here in Mexico, voting centers will be set up in Ajijic, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico City, Puerto Vallarta, and Mazatlan.
Imagine yoursel...
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